Cleary, 34, will attend training camp with the Flyers on a professional tryout. (USA TODAY Images)

Whenever winger Daniel Cleary arrives in town, he’ll do so without a contract in hand.

The team announced Tuesday that they signed the 34-year-old winger to a professional tryout, but said nothing about an actual contract. That’s because they can’t afford to add the salary of the terms first reported by the Detroit Free Press – a three-year, $8.25 million contract.

Sure, it would be far easier to make a trade. After all, the Flyers have a surplus of defensemen. There are nine blueliners at camp on one-way deals and also Hal Gill, who is also on a PTO. Seeing as how the on-ice portion of training camp has yet to begin league-wide, there isn’t much of a market for teams with injuries on defense.

Then again, since when do the Flyers make things easy? They can actually fit Cleary in without making a trade if they hold off signing him until they turn the roster in to league offices with Chris Pronger on it.

The injured defenseman needs to be on the roster for at least one day before the Flyers can put him on the long-term injured reserve and get relief of $4.91 million, the value of his cap hit.

By sending waiver-exempt Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier to the Phantoms and waiving Bruno Gervais (who may or may not be claimed) and sending him to the AHL as well, the Flyers could be under the cap by $456,478[2]. They’d have 22 players on the roster.

Once Pronger is on the roster for one day, the Flyers can put him on long-term injured reserve, allowing for salary cap relief. His salary would free up enough[3] to bring back Schenn and Couturier and also sign Cleary at the reported $2.75 million cap hit.